cor-lokt ultra bullets

[ms]

Has any one here shot game with remington cor-lokt ultra bullet? Or shot at the range, if so were they a good shooter? I think this bullet might be as good or better then a nosler. :wink:

[Lawdog]

After viewing the cross section of the bullet on Remington’s web site,

http://www.remington.com/ammo/coreloktultra/advantage.htm

I am not buying their sales pitch.  The jacket is way to thin down by the base to hold the bullet together.  Sorry they fall short to the bullet companies always measure themselves up to, Nosler Partition.  In my opinion Remington hasn’t made a good bullet since they dropped the Bronze Point.  Lawdog
 

[ms]

Thank you law dog for your opinion. I also like bear claw.

[rickt300]

Kinda harsh ain't ya Lawdog.  Sure have knocked off a bunch of deer with them 165 grain PSPCL's outa my 30-06 and really couldn't ask for more. Haven't recovered one yet either.  Why don't you like em?

[Lawdog]

rickt300,

I don't think so.  In over 40 years of reloading I have tried many different bullets in trying to keep the cost down but never at the expense of ruining good venison.  I have had/seen many deer shot with CoreLok bullets that have broke apart ruining great amounts of venison.  I seen what happened to my sons Antelope Buck that he shot using a 130 gr. CoreLok bullet out of his .270 Win..  He hit it in the right front shoulder when the buck back stepped back at the shot.  We lost the whole front quarter off that buck.  No I prefer a bullet that mushrooms and exits the animal without breaking apart.  This is why for all game I use Nosler Partitions(because they have worked for all the years I have used them) and Barnes bullets.  Small groups and tight lines to you.  Lawdog
 

[rickt300]

I generally hit em in the ribs with any bullet I use and like quick expansion. I have also found that if you hit bone with a fast bullet you are going to lose some meat  For my hunting I have found that Interloc's , coreloks and speer bullets work fine and the partitions don't take em down as quick.  This on deer anyway. If I need a deep penetrater I go to a heavy speer hotcore like the 180and 200 graine bullets in 30 cal and the 150 in .270, even then I try to aim at the far shoulder and not the one on the side I am shooting at.  Back to the coreloks. I have some thirty bullets found under the hide on the far side of elk mostly that looked like the deadliest mushroom in the woods picture in the ad  in both 150 and 180 grain weight fired from 30-06 rifles.  This is not a recommendation for the 150 grain bullet on elk but many people use it.

[Lawdog]

rickt300,

I have some thirty bullets found under the hide

This is my reason for using bullets like the Nosler Partition and the Barnes.  You rarely find your bullet as they exit the animal.  It is the exit wound that leaves the blood trail.  Entrance wounds tend to seal up(even large calibers) thus no blood trail.  In all the animals I have taken I have only 17 bullets that have been recovered, all from the bears.  I have never recovered a bullet from any Elk or Moose not to mention deer.  Thank you I will stick to my premium bullets and tell everyone that asks to use them too.  Small groups and tight lines to you.  Lawdog
 

[rickt300]

I hunt with a group of 12-15 people every year in Wyoming and I do a lot of the skinning/meat handling for the guys.  Thats why I came up with my collection of bullets from the most popular factory loads.  I have always reloaded and have tried the partition and early versions of the Barnes X bullets.  Neither really suited me or the other guys I talked into trying them, the Nosler often exiting but leaving a smaller exit hole than what I would get from the 200 grain or 180 grain Speer Horcore bullets.  The barnes X bullet appeared to have not expanded at all out of my 338, the 225 grain version. Also with a lung hit there is always some blood coming from the nose and mouth.  As far as tracking goes in snow blood or a lot of it is not absolutely necessary to recover an elk and even dry tracking is not that tough most of the time, after all they are large animals.  I have noticed that they just do not travel far with a Speer hotcor, Rem corelokt or hornady interlok of the reccommended weight thru the heart lung area..  Interestingly in our group it seems the most memorable tracking jobs happen when using the so called premium bullets.  Just because a partition penetrates a shoulder does not mean the small frontal area and reduced energy from what was wasted on the bone will do the damage say a hotcor would make after a sensible hit in the ribs behind the shoulder.  None of our group will shoot at an elk unless it can be hit properly and this means no rear end shots or risky angling shots..  Then again if you get the results you want out of Nosler's great I just haven't gotten what I want from them.

[Drilling Man]

I've used a pile of non premium bullets over the years, and those same bullets are what got me started designing, building, and useing premium bullets!!  Liveing in Alaska for 25 years gave me the opertunity to see for my self, what works, and what doesn't work.  I also mfg'd "bonded core" bullets and loaded ammo for sale, so i tested every bullet i could get my hands on, for comparison purposes.

  In my opinion, there's no better "all around" bullet than the Nosler partitions!!!  Hot cores, corloks, Innerlocks, and all the other std bullets don't even come close to NP's when you need a bullet to work at high velocity, and/or in a tough situation!!

  I've taken moose, caribou, deer, sheep, big bears and all kinds of other animials with NP's, and i've yet to be disapointed with there performance!!

  Drilling Man

[rickt300]

I am glad they work for you.  My last use I had for the Nosler partition was brought about because the feral hogs on my place in east Texas were getting too big for standard bullets from my 6MM Remington so i made an effort to make a giant killer from a light deer rifle. but it didn't work out that way and that hog got too far into the swamp to find (all it took was a couple hundred yards)  so I abandoned the 6MM and went from a 6.5 swede to my present rifle a 7MM mauser pushing 160 grain Speer Hotcors and 175 grain Hornady spire points, problem solved.  Use enough gun and you don't need fancy bullets especially if your impact velocities are under 2800 feet per second.  I really liked the old solid base line of bullets but when they discontinued them I quit using Nosler bullets.  If I don't take my 270 for elk this year I am going to try Hornady's 190 grain spire point boat tail in my 30-06 and many of my friends will tell me I am overgunned.

[ms]

Hi Rickt300 I 'AM talking about the new remington cor-lokt bullet that remington asking $32.00 a box. I shoot reg cor-lokt now for $17.00 a box. :wink:

[rickt300]

Sorry, it's just too easy to get into a pissing match with the partition crowd. I've read about the new bullet but have never seen one.  If I were to pay that much for a box of ammo I think I would try Federals Hi-Energy line with the Nosler Partition and see if they work the way you want them to.  I like to wait a bit to see what kind of results the guys on this forum have with new products. For any and all deer hunting the regular corelokt works fine if you are using the right weight bullet.

[Lawdog]

rickt300,

I am glad they work for you. My last use I had for the Nosler partition was brought about because the feral hogs on my place in east Texas were getting too big for standard bullets from my 6MM Remington so i made an effort to make a giant killer from a light deer rifle.

Your saying that the Nosler Partitions didn't work when the problem was wrong cartridge as you admitted.

I abandoned the 6MM and went from a 6.5 swede to my present rifle a 7MM mauser

The Partition didn't fail you, you failed the Partition by using the wrong cartridge.  Small groups and tight lines to you.  Lawdog
 

[Drilling Man]

that hog got too far into the swamp to find

  I can't tell you how many times a hunter has bad mouthed a load, bullet, or caliber to me, after "freely admitting" they never even found what they was shooting at!!!

  How the heck anyone can tell what happened with out finding the animial, i have no idea!!!!  At "best", all you can do is GUESS!!!

  Drilling Man

[rickt300]

Your right I didn't find that hog but I do know I hit him which was on his shoulder.and as he was huge I figure the cartridge just wasn't up to the job.. At the time I was living in Wyoming and I came down to hunt with my dad, I only brought one rifle. All my reloading stuff was at his house so I went out and bought some 100 grain Noslers because I was having the same trouble with the 100 grain Hornady interloks that were in the ammo I planned to use on deer.  The river was up and our property was turned into a corridor for just about everything that lives in east Texas especially feral hogs. I shot 6 big ones and got all but two which I should have shot in the neck like the others that I did collect.  I guess the words Nosler Partition (holy grail of bullets) on the box caused me to feel that the little rifle was up to a task it wasn't.  Lots of people make the same mistake, not necessarily using a rifle of too small a caliber but expecting a "Premium" bullet to do things that shouldn't be tried.

[bea175]

I use the speers hot core 160 in my  280 Ack. Imp. and have killed a number of bucks and one bear with this bullet , all one shot kills without moving out of their tracks. The Speer is a great bullet as long as you push it at a normal speed. It is when you try to  push it passed what it was designed for in Magnum Rifle that you start to get poor bullet performance. The Nosler and the Barnes takes over where the Hot Core, Interlock and Core-lokt's start to fail. You may be able to use standard bullet on all your big game hunting including elk and get by with it, but one animal lost because of bullet failure is unacceptable. No more that a box of bullets cost use the best bullet you can buy that will work under the worst situations in the field and not the best. You owe it to the animal you hunt. :wink:

NRA LIFE MEMBER

[Mac11700]

I use the speers hot core 160 in my  280 Ack. Imp. and have killed a number of bucks and one bear with this bullet , all one shot kills without moving out of their tracks. The Speer is a great bullet as long as you push it at a normal speed. It is when you try to  push it passed what it was designed for in Magnum Rifle that you start to get poor bullet performance. The Nosler and the Barnes takes over where the Hot Core, Interlock and Core-lokt's start to fail. You may be able to use standard bullet on all your big game hunting including elk and get by with it, but one animal lost because of bullet failure is unacceptable. No more that a box of bullets cost use the best bullet you can buy that will work under the worst situations in the field and not the best. You owe it to the animal you hunt. :wink:

NRA LIFE MEMBER

That's one of the better arguments for using a premium bullet that's been stated so far.......I can only add...if standard bullets never failed...there would not be as large a market  for the premiums bullet lines.....


Mac

[billy]

I use 150 partitions in my .280 ,i.ve killed bucks and does with it ,not one of the deer has run  more than twenty yards.I plan on trying some express core -loks in my .270 ,been using 130 gameking ,hope these will group better.

[Arkie-06]

I went to Wal- Mart  today to pick up a few things and going past the sporting goods section I noticed they had about 10 boxes  of 30-06  180 grain  core-lokt Ultra  on clearance for $16.00  a box. I grabbed up a couple of boxes  to give them a try this hunting season. Would have liked to have gotten all of them, if there is any left i will when i go back. Got home and noticed 2 of the bullets had  some good dings in them so I  decided to shoot them thru the chrony to see how they would perform. First shot was 2663 fps and the second was 2677 with a average of 2670fps, this from a 22 inch barrel Ruger.  

[Judson]

I am not a Remington Core Loss fan either, seen to many shed the jacket.    They work fair for deer and stuff like that but on the bigger critters they would be nearly me last choice.    Nosler Partitions, Barnes X are some that I have had good results with but at least for 9.3mm and up I will take the Swift A Frame.    I have never had a problem with them on any thing from Springbok to Eland.    Have any of you used the A Frames and how do you like them?

[Bandito]

JUDSON! The ULTRA has a bonded core. Now tell us, how many ULTRAs have you fired and the percentage of core losses??? The core is bonded to the jacket at the molecular level and they haven't been out long. I just want to know as I was ready to order a substantial number of them for one of my guns.  Later, Rusty Z

[Judson]

That bonding process is basically the same as soldiering the core to the jacket.   Remington is trying to solve a problem that would be better handled with a partitioned or solid core(like a Barnes X).    The problem with a bonded core is that if the velocity is high enough and the bullet hits bone and other hard stuff it can still blow up.    Even with the Barnes X bullet with enough velocity and bone it will shed all the petals and end up being not much more then a solid.    No I do not think much of the "Core Lok" or any Remington bullet but that aside I truly think that a bonded core is never going to out do a partition of good construction.

[Bandito]

Don't shoot it so fast. RZ

[7magWoodsman]

Firstly, I want to say I am a HUGE fan of the Nosler Partition.

Remington is trying to solve a problem that would be better handled with a partitioned or solid core..

Have you even tried them?
How do you know they will not outperform the Partition?
Just based on thought and appearance, why are you so quick to put them down?

No I do not think much of the "Core Lok" or any Remington bullet.

As for the CORE-LOKT, I have killed around 100 Whitetail(maybe more, maybe less)with the original Express CORE-LOKT, I have NEVER needed more than one shot, and have NEVER recovered not one single bullet...when bigger game is in the picture I rely on the Partition and also have had good experiences with Hornady's Interlocks and the Nosler Solid Base.

I truly think that a bonded core is never going to out do a partition of good construction.

You can think it and I am skeptical myself, but I am not so willing to believe that the new CORE-LOKT ULTRA Bonded is inferior to the tried and true Partition until I have seen first hand what the ULTRA is all about.

Stay Safe. Happy Hunting/Shooting.  

[Judson]

Bullets are funny things and we sort of expect the poor little fellows to work under all conditions.    For example we buy some .308 diameter bullets in let us say 165 grains  spitzer boat tails and expect then to perform in a single shot 30-30 and then load them into our trusty 300 Ultra and also expect good results.     The bullet companies have a tough job and in order to meet this broad range of velocity and have good performance they developed partitioned bullets or put velocity limits on their bullets.    A partitioned bullet will tolerate the broadest range of velocities and still have a reasonable degree of weight retention  purely from it's design.   The front half can be soft and rather thin jacketed so it will expand at relatively low velocity and yet though the front may "blow up" at high velocity the base and jacket will still continue on giving good penetration and in many cases a substantial exit hole.
   On the other hand bonded core bullets have to be designed for a narrower range of velocities.   If they are too tough then once velocity falls off or with low velocity cartridges expansion is minimal.  If they are to fragle then with high velocity you have bullet failure.    This is one of the problems that plagued the .264 Winchester when it first came out.
   Deer are not the best test medium for bullets either as they are thin skinned and rather easy to kill as they are suseptiable to shock more then many other animals.    Do not get me wrong I love deer and deer hunting and believe they are one of the more challenging animals to hunt.    However they are not that difficult to kill with a properly placed shot.
   In my line of work I deal with all sorts of hunters and numerous recovered bullets.    I also deal with several African out fitters who see literally hundreds of game animals shot each year from the tiny Dikers to Elephants.    A lot of my opinion is based on what they have seen and feel works and on what I have experienced both here in Maine in my shop and in Africa.    By the way if you really want to get in a hot one tell an African P.H. that you like high velocity and small bullets like a 165 in .308 at around 3200 + fps!!!    Neither my .308 Norma nor my .366 make any points for me when I am over there.

[Mitch in MI]

In my opinion Remington hasn’t made a good bullet since they dropped the Bronze Point.

Dropped the Bronze Point?
You want 150gr 308 Bronze Points?
$15.67/100 good enough?
http://www.midwayusa.com/rewriteaproduct/553355

[Judson]

Hay guys, I did not refer to Remington Core Lok bullets as Core Loks I refered to them as Core Loss bullets!    But who ever makes the bullets the best performance at all velocity ranges and distances will be of a partitioned design in my opinion but lets discus this!!!!

[anthony passero]

Gentlemen,

                  this is a hot stove debate if there ever was one!! i have to say,after 6 years guiding in wyoming and montana, i like remington core loks. they flat out kill on any boiler room shot.however they do break up on quartering shots. i tracked more then one critter  because of it. i also feel people who use premium bullets could  take any animal with a 22 because they can shoot and are in good shape, and your dude who has lots of cash and has the newest hottest ultra tomahawk cruise missle with a zillion power scope and gut shoots the animal anyway and gives me a long days work..most are in the second group. bottom line a poorly placed shot with a barnes x, a swift ,partition or whatever your poison, does not kill nearly as well as aplain jane bullet in lung/heart area.so i think it comes down to the shooter. By the way i used serra bullets for deer/antelope and nosler partitions or speer hot core on elk. thats my plug nickel contribution to this thread.

                                  Anthony

[Judson]

Good point about shot placement!!!    Gut shot is gut shot but a bullet that stays together and exits might make finding the animal a lot easier.    You also made a good point about premium ammo.    Most avid hunters and shooters will not skimp and save a few dimes on ammo.   Too much time and money is invested in a hunting trip to go for false economy like cheep ammo.    If we consider the different ranges that a hunter may have to shoot and the velocity differences caused by this, it then becomes apparent that for all round bullet performance we need something like a partitioned bullet what ever the brand.

[147 Grain]

Core Lokt Ultra's ultra-thin jacket reminds me of a light jacket on a Speer Hot Core / Sierra Game King and the BC is still almost 100 points less than the average bullet out there.

Example:  A 168-gr. (.308 caliber) Core Lokt Ultra has a BC of only .356, while Speer's standard (flat base) 165-gr. Hot Core has a BC of .444.

Moreover, Nosler's return of the Solid Base brings a much heavier jacketed bullet that is more aerodynamic.

Example:  .308 caliber 180-gr. = .491 BC, just a tad less than the .507 of a 180-gr. Ballistic Tip or AccuBond.  180-gr. Core Lokt Ultra has a BC of only .402.